Smile at 7 3/4

The teeth that Bea had when we first met her, 4 top and 4 bottom, have all departed as she transitions from childhood to adolescence:

What a change from May 2015 to now:

February Fun

I've been procrastinating getting back to the blog, for no good reasons, but here's a review of the past few weeks.  We had a blast at Great Wolf Den with the Chazanoffs, and here's one and only pic to show for it!  Warm water truly feels so much better when snow is in your view out the window!

Beatrice was so happy with her class Tet party, which included Pin the Tail on the Monkey,

rolling and eating a goi cuon,

creating a lunar calendar,

and a dragon parade through many classrooms:

The next morning, a fresh spring roll and a bowl of cheerios combined for a perfect Vietnamese-American breakfast!

The New Year party at Marianapolis was postponed a week due to snow, but we took in the rescheduled event:

The Tet face paint led to Valentine's face paint, a request for the Fire & Ice festival downtown, where it was way too cold (teens below zero!) for pictures!

and my hubby made me an amazing Valentine's dinner:

Bea had a week off for vacation and she had a lot of fun and kept busy, including this play-in-the-snow-before-it-melts playdate with Samm, right before she got a fever for three days:

and this pic off the school website shows me a little girl whose face isn't looking so little anymore!

Tet Countdown....

Winter Has Hit!

The calendar is just about ready to turn to February, and this month has been fun and gone by so fast.  We went to my alma mater last weekend to see the Lady Huskies obliterate Temple.  Bea put on some blue & white and some bling for the game and practiced her "GO UConn!" cheer.  We had so much fun.  I think her favorite parts of the trip though were the bookstore and the ice cream.

We FINALLY got some snow this weekend, though our measly 6" didn't compare to the blizzard that hit the family in DC.  It was enough for me though, and this girl was happy to get out and taste some New England snow:

 this guy was not so sure about what all the excitement was about...

And this was sitting on my cell phone from a random moment a few days ago when Bea was on the iPad and the sun was streaming in.  I snapped it and realized that the camera is sometimes a crystal ball showing me the future.

HELP!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Creativity Strikes Again

When Bea was really little, I rarely gave her toys to entertain herself in the car or when we went to people's houses. At age 2 she entertained herself on a two-hour car ride with nothing but a baby wipe in her hand, folding it, pretending it was God knows what, having a ball.  Well that creative streak has continued and her new hobby is fashion design.  She turns toilet paper and/or Kleenex into some amazing dresses, headwraps,and even shoes, as evidenced by this runway model that I found hanging around this week.

                                                    and here's a handbag from the same line:

and a quick funny....when I recently was asking  that  she stop imaginative play/conversation because we were going to visit people and I wanted her to talk "to real people about real things," she pulled up a pretend phone to her ear, said "alright...." in a very dejected voice, then pretend dialed and ordered "one ticket to reality please..."